PETER & THE WOLF FROM THE SCIENCE LAB

Transcription

1 PETER & THE WOLF FROM THE SCIENCE LAB

2 OUTLINE OF TODAY: 10:45 11:25 Science and Music 11:25 12:00 Crafty Little Instruments 12:00 12:15 Learning Music from Lawrence 12:15 12:30 Performance and recording

3 WHAT MAKES NOISES / NOTES? Shaking Tapping Hot-water pipes, the fish-tank, table and desk tops, glass coffee jars, milk bottles, empty pottery plant pots, the bottom of an empty drawer, the waste-paper bin, a tray, half a coconut shell, any empty tins. A tin of drawing pins, a jar of peas, a yoghurt pot with small pebbles in the bottom, nails or screws in a bottle. Class musical instruments Some are for blowing Some are for twanging Some are for shaking What s the difference between a high and low note? Does it depend on the instrument?

4 RUBBER BAND ORCHESTRA With a finger, pluck the free bit of rubber band across the top of the jar, in the middle, several times and do three different things: 1. Listen 2. Watch 3. Feel, with a fingertip to one side of the middle. What happens when you move the rubber band to a different object? Does it sound the same? If it s the same rubber band, what s different?

5 RUBBER BAND ORCHESTRA How do the following effect the sound? Width of the rubber band Use two or more bands of the same unstretched length, but of as different widths as possible. round the same 'sound-box'. Stretch them as equally as possible, thus making the tests 'fair'. Tightness of the rubber band Slacken and tighten the same band several times on one soundbox, testing the pitch after each adjustment. Length of the rubber band Put a pencil under the rubber band across the top of a widemouthed jar, and plucking and testing the section of the band on each side of the pencil separately. Move the pencil steadily across the jar. plucking the band meanwhile. a range of some two octaves can be produced.

6 HOLLOW OR SOLID? Empty vessels make the most sound What can we test? Coconuts Solid / Hollow Blocks of Wood Coffee Jars Boxes Tins

7 MUSIC IN NATURE Prime number life cycles 254 Hz Key of B C Singing Sand Dunes

8 HOW DOES MUSIC RELATE TO SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING & MATHS? Sound is a pressure wave caused by a vibration Musical notes are fractions Noise cancelling headphones Sound engineers build concert halls Musical instrument design Prime numbers CDs + lasers

9 WHAT IS SOUND? Sound is caused by something emitting energy as a vibration. Molecules inside air start to move and wobble Areas of high and low pressure move outwards creating a form of longitudinal wave (a wave which vibrates in the direction of travel). The amplitude (volume) and frequency (pitch) of the sound wave depends on what the source is and the amount of energy supplied outwards.

10 WHAT IS SOUND? What does a sound look like? Slinky We can use an oscilloscope to see what these electrical waves look like An oscilloscope draws a graph of an electrical signal Does sound travel faster than light? Sound travels at Mach 1 = 340 ms -1 Vibrating air molecules move a film in the microphone, which move a coil of wire and generate an electrical signal

11 HOW DO WE HEAR SOUND? An extremely clever organ: Tiny bones Tubes Membranes (the ear drum) 1. Funnel-like shape collects the sound wave 2. Filters it through the ear passage 3. Vibrates the ear drum. 4. Signal converted into an electrical signal by the rest of the ear (microphone) 5. This is then sent to the brain.

12 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOUND BOUNCES OFF A SURFACE? An echo = repeated sound Sound wave reflects off a surface Sound wave bounces off smooth, hard objects in the same way as a rubber ball bounces off the ground Direction of sound changes, the echo sounds the same What kind of surfaces do you think: Reflect: Hard surfaces like canyons, mountain ranges Absorb: Soft surfaces like cushions- do not bounce back

13 SOUND ABSORPTION Soft materials absorb sounds and silence them Energy is soaked up and cannot travel further Echo-Free chambers, line with soft foam Orfield Labs in Minneapolis Absorb % of sound Anechoic >>no echo. So quiet, you can hear your own organs: your heart, stomach, even your ears 1 metre thick fiberglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and foot-thick concrete 45 minutes

14 NOTES AND FRACTIONS Can anyone tell us how notes relate to fractions?

15 OCTAVES How many steps are there inside one octave?

16 THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL The Royal Albert Hall used to suffer badly echoes caused by the ceiling Acoustic tests carried out in the late 1960sà acoustic diffusers ( mushrooms ) in the auditorium ceiling.

17 ACOUSTIC PERFECTION Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany $843 million 10,000 unique acoustic panels lining the ceiling

18 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES Wave interference = when two waves meet while traveling in the same material Constructive & Destructive Noise cancelling headphones capture environmental sounds and use computer technology to produce a second sound wave that cancels wave one The combination of these two sound waves within the headset will result in destructive interference and thus reduce a worker's exposure to loud noise.

19 WHISPERING GALLERY

20 THE MUSICAL ROAD

21 CDS

22 PETER & THE WOLF Prokofiev wrote his first opera aged nine Each character in the story represented by a different instrument or group of instruments: can you remember which are which? Peter Bird Duck Cat Wolf How do these instruments work?

23 PETER = THE STRINGS How does the musician make sound? Make strings vibrate by rubbing bow Do we make musical notes when we pluck elastic bands? It would not make a very loud, interesting or musical sound. What makes the sound louder? Amplify the sound through soundbox/ resonator How do the strings pass the vibrations on? Top of soundbox = sound board- a vibrating piece of wood Vibration from strings is picked up by the bridge Strings rest on the bridge near one end. Bridge then transfers the vibrations to the sound board The strings are usually made from nylon thread or steel wire. Pianos are considered string instruments that are played by striking or hitting the string. Fine bows for violins can use up to 150 horse hairs.

24 PETER THE STRINGS (Think back to rubber bands) How do strings produce different notes: Length - Longer strings vibrate slower and make lower sounding notes than shorter strings. Weight - Heavy, thick strings make lower notes than lighter thin strings. Tightness - A tight string makes a higher note than a loose string.

25 WOLF THE HORN How does the musician make sound? Brass instruments get their sound from the vibrations of the musician's lips. Lips >> mouthpiece >> blowing. Vibration between the lips and mouthpiece >> air to vibrate down the long brass tube. How do you vary the note/ tone/ loudness? Control vibration of lips. The tube is stopped at one end Pitch = changing the length of the tube All those tubes help the instrument to make different sounds and notes. Buttons = valves. Pressing the valves adds length to the tube. Slide is used in the trombone. Tube = bore End = bell The shape, width, and length of the bore and bell have a lot to do with the tone of the brass instrument.

26 BIRD- THE FLUTE How does the musician make sound? Blowing air into or across the mouthpiece Create vibrations that make sounds and notes. How can you create vibrations? The flute family Creates sounds when air is blown across an edge. Air gets split by the edge causing vibrations at the mouthpiece Reed instruments Vibrations are made when the air travels across a thin piece of wood Reed vibrates making the sound We can have one or two reeds

27 HOW DO WE MAKE NOTES? Covering holes on the long tubes. Changes the length air travels à change note Recorder = holes are covered with your fingers. Saxophone and oboe = metal keys that are pressed. Press key > soft pad raised > allowing more or less air to flow through. Keys make it easier to play a long instrument with a lot of holes. The longer the tube or column of air the lower pitch the note will be How do we get lowest/ highest notes? Cover all the holes Leave the closest hole to the mouthpiece open?

28 LAWRENCE S BASSOON A Bassoon has two reeds Play by flicking 1. Reed 2. Metal Tube 3. Wing Joint 4. Boot/ Butt 5. Bass Joint 6. Bell

29 LET S MAKE INSTRUMENTS!

30 RAINMAKER Materials: A snack tube or a long cardboard tube (such as used for kitchen foil) Paint (gold or silver) Glitter and sequins Glue Lentils or rice Instructions: Decorate your tube with sequins and glitter. Fill the tube about 1/5 full of rice or lentils and glue the lid on securely. Tip the tube from side to side to hear the rice fall.

31 HARMONICAS Making a musical instrument from: Materials: - 2 Lollipop Sticks - 2 Rubber Bands - A strip of paper the same size as the lollipop sticks - 2 straws (or toothpicks) cut the width or just wider than the lollipop stick How to assemble: 1. Sandwich the paper strip in between the 2 lollipop sticks 2. Wrap a rubber band around one end until it is snug. 3. Slide a straw to the inside of the rubber band. 4. Sandwich the last straw at the other end of the lollipop sticks, and wrap with a rubber band.

32 CHINESE DRUMS Shoelace Wooden beads Wooden spoon Two old cds/dvds Strong glue Acrylic paint 1. Thread a bead on to each end of the shoelace and knot to secure. Wrap the shoelace around the spoon, gluing in place. Just a short length should be left either side. 2. Glue an old CD or CD-Rom to either side of the spoon. You need very strong glue for this (we used a hot glue gun), so young children must be closely supervised. 3. When the glue is dry, paint your drum with acrylic paints. 4. Practise getting a regular rhythm going, or use your drum to support your favorite team at a sporting event - perfect for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Or use your drum to make a loud noise on Chinese New Year!

33 WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT? How are sounds produced? How fast do sound waves travel? What is a reflected sound called? How do we hear CDs? What damps sound in the Royal Albert Hall? How many octaves are in a note? Which instrument was Peter?

34 MAKING INSTRUMENTS A Bottle Xylophone - %20Schools/2012%20activities/2012-Science-Week-bottle-xylophone.pdf Chinese Drum- Bottle Cap tambourine- Rain maker -